$1.7 Million Withdrawal from Venice Surplus Property Funds
By Jim
Smith
The Los Angeles City Council
voted on April 8 to take $1.7 million from a Venice trust fund to pay for four
projects in the community.
$800,000 in Venice funds, in effect, has
been transferred to the city of Los Angeles’ General Fund. It was done in
a round-about way by using the money to install parking meters on lots between
Abbot Kinney Blvd. and Electric Avenue. All money collected from parking meters
and parking tickets for expired meters will go to L.A., not Venice.
The $1.7 million is coming from the
Venice Surplus Property Fund which is funded by the proceeds from the sale of
city-owned lots in Venice. Until Councilmember Cindy Miscikowski came along, the
funds could only be spent on capital improvements in Venice. She diluted the
terms of withdrawal of funds to include any projects in Venice.
The April 8 motion, initiated by
Miscikowski’s successor, Bill Rosendahl, passed the city council, which is
hungry for money to cover its budget deficit, by 15-0. It stated that the
$800,000 was “to cover design and construction of urgently needed metered
parking in Venice’s central business district.”
The other parts covered in the motion
were:
• $600,000 for constructing
a new bike path on the beach;
•
$250,000 for a new skate park on the Damson Oil site on the
beach;
• $75,000 for a vague and
controversial purpose: “to prepare and process coastal development permit
applications to the California Coastal Commission for overnight parking
districts in the coastal zone sections of
Venice.”
Rosendahl went ahead
with the parking meter expenditure despite an email campaign against it by
several Venice community leaders. Requests for a financial accounting of the
Surplus Property Fund have also been
ignored.
Appeals can, and probably
will, be made to the California Coastal Commission.
Posted: Thu - May 1, 2008 at 07:17 PM
